The Ghost Fleet of the Recession

September 14, 2009 1:29 PM

A gigantic fleet of semi-abandoned cargo and container ships has been photographed east of Singapore. Meanwhile, the ship-breaking yards at Alang are booming, and the shipping industry is looking for ways to weather the storm. As the recession slashes demand, it seems the shipping industry may be heading for dry dock...
posted by vorfeed (46 comments total)

They will be the first such US ships scrapped in south Asia since 1998, when the Clinton administration – under pressure from campaigners – ordered a moratorium on the scrapping of US government-owned ships in south Asia. "This is really shocking," said Jim Puckett, of the Basel Action Network, another campaign group. "Now we have elected an environmental President, and his administration for the first time in 10 years is willing to ignore the law and dump toxic waste from US flagged ships on developing countries."

As Hemingway used to say: How do you like it now, gentlemen?
posted by Joe Beese at 1:34 PM on September 14, 2009

I thought the Baltic Dry Index was on the up? Perhaps not close to the peak during the bubble years but off the lows from a year ago...
posted by PenDevil at 1:35 PM on September 14, 2009

G-g-g-ghost pirates?
posted by filthy light thief at 1:39 PM on September 14, 2009 [19 favorites]

Finally, I can pick up that longboat for a song.
posted by The Whelk at 1:41 PM on September 14, 2009

Where's L. Bob Rife?
posted by dirtdirt at 1:41 PM on September 14, 2009 [10 favorites]

Dirtdirt stole my reference.
posted by m0nm0n at 1:44 PM on September 14, 2009

Dirtdirt stole my reference.

Good thing there's a fleet of boats available to launch an assult on dirtdirt and take it back with force. To Singapore!
posted by filthy light thief at 1:49 PM on September 14, 2009

"Some experts believe the ratio of container ships sitting idle could rise to 25 per cent within two years in an extraordinary downturn that shipping giant Maersk has called a 'crisis of historic dimensions'. Last month the company reported its first half-year loss in its 105-year history."

That's simply astonishing.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 1:50 PM on September 14, 2009

Awesome pictures of Alang previously.
posted by Rhaomi at 1:51 PM on September 14, 2009

Here's the thing - we were just in a bubble-boom that most agree was unmanageable and unsustainable. These ships represent and upscaling in capacity to service an economy that won't be back for a very long time. The whole "Ghost Fleet of Singapore" is an impressive visual indicator of the state of the world economy, but it's not like this is a surprise to anyone. People are laid off, and fearing layoffs; they don't spend like they used to; consumerism took a huge hit. Of course there's going to be a serious drop in the amount of Stuff that has to be moved around the world, and of course that's going to result in a hefty amount of cargo tonnage sitting idle.
posted by Tomorrowful at 1:53 PM on September 14, 2009

Think that is awful? You should see the shopping carts around my supermarket!
posted by Postroad at 1:55 PM on September 14, 2009

Very interesting post, thanks!

I thought the Baltic Dry Index was on the up?
Off its absolute lows, but more like the low end of the range before it got into the $10,000 range during the commodity spike years.
posted by shothotbot at 1:57 PM on September 14, 2009

"Good riddance."

—Whales

posted by Sys Rq at 1:58 PM on September 14, 2009 [6 favorites]

Really good photos - I could have used a dozen more. I'll have to track this Richard Jones fellow down.
posted by sidereal at 2:01 PM on September 14, 2009

Fascinating, thank you.
posted by everichon at 2:03 PM on September 14, 2009

There are so many ships but no one seems to be on board. When we sail past them in our fishing boats we never see anyone. They are like real ghost ships and some people are scared of them. They believe they may bring a curse with them and that there may be bad spirits on the ships.'

If they're really abandoned, why aren't people stripping the ships of equipment, oil, parts, and so forth? That's the question I was left wondering about after reading the story. And if they're not, does that mean there's really a watchman on board? There is that one guy who says he's worried about ghosts, but I don't buy that the guy represents everyone living around there.
posted by crapmatic at 2:03 PM on September 14, 2009

hmmm . . . excess hulls and "up to" 2 million people actively demonstrating that they're really down on Democratic governance.

I see a solution here, baby. They could lack all the access to healthcare they wanted!
posted by Palamedes at 2:05 PM on September 14, 2009 [5 favorites]

Bear in mind that not only has there been a drop in demand, but a spike in supply, due to the long lead times required to build ships which make canceling an order very expensive. It's a bad time for the shipping industry...

...but then I seem to remember hearing about a decade ago that we were never going to be able to use the glut of fiber optic bandwidth laid during the 90s either. Perhaps we'll see the Google Navy sooner rather than later?
posted by anigbrowl at 2:05 PM on September 14, 2009

I like the cut of your jib, Palamedes.
posted by entropicamericana at 2:07 PM on September 14, 2009

Awesome! With all these dead boats, I wonder it would be finally cost effective to make Waterworld 2?
posted by Nanukthedog at 2:22 PM on September 14, 2009 [2 favorites]

A couple of years ago these ships would be steaming back and forth. Now 12 per cent are doing nothing

Hopefully this has resulted in a 12% reduction in greenhouse gases generated by maritime shipping.
posted by KokuRyu at 2:23 PM on September 14, 2009

This is amazing, thanks.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:35 PM on September 14, 2009

This is obviously viral marketing for Far Cry 3.
posted by turgid dahlia at 2:40 PM on September 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

Man, I hate The Daily Mail. This isn't a conspiracy to hide ships from you. It's laying up your unused capacity somewhere near the dry docks they get serviced in and the Chinese container ports that they'll most likely be picking up from if and when manufacturing rebounds.
posted by IanMorr at 2:40 PM on September 14, 2009 [6 favorites]

A couple of years ago these ships would be steaming back and forth. Now 12 per cent are doing nothing

I read an interesting dead-tree article this week which mentioned that peak oil and carbon control schemes could end the movement towards greater globalization, since globalized trade relies on cheap shipping and fossil fuels. With $7/gallon gas and carbon controls, it is much cheaper to produce steel in Pennsylvania than China (I think it was by a factor of some something like two-thirds). Same goes for other goods/regions.

Just today I read an article that mentioned Hyundai/Kia is thinking of opening a Canadian plant, if sales keep up. Of course, a car plant in the above scenario is also problematic but for different reasons.

I'm going to be watching the shipping industry with interest because a lot more of these ships could be sitting empty soon.
posted by Deep Dish at 2:44 PM on September 14, 2009

It's the quantity of unused capacity. Sizeable, to pick a word.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:44 PM on September 14, 2009

I have a classmate who is studying occupational health among shipbreakers in Bangladesh. Here are some highlights from an article on her website, What is happening with shipbreaking today:
- Shipbreaking was declared illegal in Bangladesh earlier this year.
- 10,000 shipbreakers in Chittagong formed a human chain to protest the decision.
- Due to legal wrangling, the shipyards are still going, and in fact business is booming due to the recession, since it can be more profitable to scrap a cargo ship than have it sit empty.
posted by PercussivePaul at 2:48 PM on September 14, 2009 [2 favorites]

Ooh, ooh, can we lash them all together and create a floating city of mutant cactuses, half-human-half-steampunk's-worst-nightmare ex-convicts, monologuing anarchist librarians, two utterly fucked-up Lovers to rule them all, and a vampire to in-the-darkness-bind-them?

[/dork]
posted by aihal at 2:52 PM on September 14, 2009 [4 favorites]

Sizeable yes, astonishing even. But it's not a conspiracy and it's certainly not The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history. The Daily Mail, of all the shitty jingoistic British tabloids is aware that D-Day, for example occurred.
posted by IanMorr at 3:07 PM on September 14, 2009 [3 favorites]

You may wish to know this because, if ever you had an irrational desire to charter one, now would be the time. This time last year, an Aframax tanker capable of carrying 80,000 tons of cargo would cost £31,000 a day ($50,000). Now it is about £3,400 ($5,500).

I think I have an idea for a mefi meet-up . . .
posted by [insert clever name here] at 3:15 PM on September 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

I think I have an idea for a mefi meet-up . . .

I was going to suggest the Frying Pan as a more practical alternative, but it looks like they're having regulatory problems with throwing parties there now. Too bad, as it's an amazing venue.
posted by exogenous at 3:32 PM on September 14, 2009

So Hob Gadling's going back into bookbinding.
posted by Smedleyman at 3:35 PM on September 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

Perhaps the owners of the surplus freighters should have a word with the owners of the Chinese zombie fishing fleet that's off the coast of Africa. There's potential for a lot of grim meathook sadofuturism there.
posted by acb at 3:39 PM on September 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

Pirates everywhere load up Google Earth and rejoice.
posted by gottabefunky at 4:07 PM on September 14, 2009

> Hopefully this has resulted in a 12% reduction in greenhouse gases generated by maritime shipping.

Perhaps more? I imagine that when you're moth balling ships you start with the oldest, least efficient ones in your fleet.
posted by adamt at 4:27 PM on September 14, 2009

Deep Dish:


sounds like 2 interesting articles i'd enjoy reading. do you have links?
posted by blastrid at 4:34 PM on September 14, 2009

Christmas
Christmas
Christmas
Christmas
Christmas
Christmas
Christmas
Most of those made sense, but I think the author is anticipating Christmas so much that he put a few extra in the story.
posted by jiawen at 5:40 PM on September 14, 2009

If they're really abandoned, why aren't people stripping the ships of equipment, oil, parts, and so forth?

They're not entirely abandoned. From the linked article: "a young European officer peers at us from the bridge of an oil tanker owned by the world's biggest container shipping line, Maersk. We circle and ask to go on board, but are waved away by two Indian crewmen who appear to be the only other people on the ship. 'They are telling us to go away,' the boat driver explains. 'No one is supposed to be here. They are very frightened of pirates.'

Even ghost ships with skeleton crews fear pirates.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 5:59 PM on September 14, 2009

Seeing that picture of all the abandoned ships reminds me of that painting of the Spanish Armada, for some reason.
posted by Effigy2000 at 6:14 PM on September 14, 2009

No mention of a one-armed dwarf?
posted by kowalski at 7:05 PM on September 14, 2009

There was an interesting WSJ article a couple months ago. The same thing that is happening here is happening all over. No surprise really. The question becomes, what to do with all the stuff movers.

What do the train companies do with their suddenly unneeded cars that used to rumble all over the nation? Park them all over town, apparently.
posted by xorry at 7:23 PM on September 14, 2009

From the article:

The world's ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world's economies.

What a Eurocentric thing to say. I travel between Malaysia and Singapore every week, and this is what I see out of the airplane window every Monday morning and Friday evening. :-) _{(And I can see my old workplace in one of the pictures)} Also, there was an NYT article a few months back on this, so it's a bit of a hyperbole to say that people are 'hiding' this.

But yeah, people don't realize how _massive_ this buildup is; I remember reading that this was close to what, 5% of the world's mercantile fleet? The other way to look at it is this: the Straits of Malacca are as packed, if not more jammed, than the expressway lining the Singapore coastline, the ECP.
posted by the cydonian at 11:22 PM on September 14, 2009

Also, while more ships are being scrapped than before - twice as many according to the Independent article - as I understand it, the 'ghost fleet' next to Singapore isn't really meant for scrapping; they're being parked next to a major shipping port in expectation of things improving quickly. As I mentioned, the numbers here in the Straits of Malacca are off the scale; it's significantly more than what Alang or Chittagong will see.
posted by the cydonian at 11:45 PM on September 14, 2009

blastrid:

The first article I am talking about was in the print edition of this paper - The Saskquatch, although the article doesn't appear to be on their website.

As for the Hyundai/Kia article, I've seen it in a few places but this is the version I read.
posted by Deep Dish at 8:25 AM on September 15, 2009

Wait a sec, here is the article with the peak oil/globalization discussions.
posted by Deep Dish at 8:40 AM on September 15, 2009

Pay no attention to that unused infrastructure (directly related to destruction in consumer demand) behind the curtain!

We've got a DJIA that needs to get over 10K, pronto!
posted by de void at 9:30 AM on September 15, 2009